Democrats amplify pressure on Trump as Pelosi accuses Barr of 'crime'

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Democrats intensified their pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday as U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Attorney General William Barr of committing a crime by lying to lawmakers and a key committee chairman threatened to hold Barr in contempt of Congress.

Even as Democratic lawmakers accused the Trump administration of launching a growing attack on American democracy and the authority of Congress, the White House showed no sign of backing down.

White House legal counsel Emmet Flood said in a defiant letter that Trump has the right to tell advisers not to testify to congressional panels on the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia inquiry.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr departs after speaking at a news conference to discuss Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential race, in Washington, DC, U.S., April 18, 2019. /Reuters Photo

The dueling statements marked a sharp escalation in the conflict between Trump's administration and Democrats who control the House of Representatives.

With Trump seeking re-election next year, Democrats are weighing whether to try to remove the Republican president from office using the impeachment process while pressing forward with demands for information on his taxes, his businesses and other topics.

Shortly after Barr refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, Pelosi accused him of lying to lawmakers about interactions with Mueller after the special counsel ended a 22-month investigation into Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election to boost Trump's candidacy.

"That's a crime," Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, told reporters, referring to Barr's congressional testimony.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec called Pelosi's allegation "reckless, irresponsible and false."

U.S. House panel chairman warns Barr over testimony, Mueller report

Democratic U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler on Thursday urged Barr to comply with the panel's demands to testify before it and to release Mueller's full report on the Russia inquiry.

Nadler, speaking at a panel hearing after Barr refused to appear for a hearing to testify on Mueller's investigation, said he would have no choice but to hold Barr in contempt if the unredacted version of the report was not made available.

U.S. President Donald Trump (C) and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (2-L) meet with the then House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi (L) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (R), in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, December 11, 2018. /VCG Photo

"Ladies and gentleman, the challenge we face is that the president of the United States wants desperately to prevent Congress, the co-equal branch of the government, from providing any check whatsoever to even his most reckless decisions," Nadler said.

"He is trying to render Congress inert as a separate and co-equal branch of government. The challenge we face is that if we don't stand up to him together today, we risk forever losing the power to stand up to any president in the future."

William Barr on Wednesday canceled plans to testify, further inflaming tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump and Democrats in Congress.

Barr was due to face the Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee on Thursday but pulled out after the two sides were unable to agree on the format for the hearing.

"It's simply part of the administration's complete stonewalling of Congress," Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler told reporters.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said Nadler's proposal to have committee lawyers question Barr was "unprecedented and unnecessary," saying questions should come from lawmakers.

The move came shortly after Barr spent more than four hours before the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee where he fended off Democratic criticism of his decision to clear Trump of criminal obstruction of justice and faulted Mueller for not reaching a conclusion of his own on the issue.

William Barr returns to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, DC, May 1, 2019. /Reuters Photo

In his first congressional testimony since releasing a redacted version of Mueller's report on April 18, Barr also dismissed Mueller's complaints that he initially disclosed the special counsel's conclusions on March 24 in an incomplete way that caused public confusion.

Illustrating tensions between the two men, Barr described as "a bit snitty" a March 27 letter from Mueller in which the special counsel urged him to release broader summaries of his findings, a step Barr rejected. Trump seized on Barr's March 24 letter to declare that he had been fully exonerated.

'Allegations now proven false'

The report detailed extensive contacts between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Moscow and the campaign's expectation that it would benefit from Russia's actions, which included hacking and propaganda to boost Trump and harm Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The report also detailed a series of actions Trump took to try to impede the investigation.

Mueller, a former FBI director, concluded there was insufficient evidence to show a criminal conspiracy and opted not to make a conclusion on whether Trump committed obstruction of justice, but pointedly did not exonerate him. Barr has said he and Rod Rosenstein, the Justice Department's No. 2 official, then determined there was not enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction.

A copy of Attorney General William Barr's letter to Congress regarding the conclusion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is arranged for a photograph in Washington, DC, U.S., March 23, 2019. /VCG Photo

Barr often appeared to excuse or rationalize Trump's conduct, asserting that the president may not necessarily have been trying to derail Mueller's investigation.

Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono told Barr that he had sacrificed a "once-decent reputation for the grifter and liar that sits in the Oval Office."

Senator Lindsey Graham, the committee's Republican chairman, rushed to Barr's defense, telling Hirono: "You've slandered this man."

Trump had been unfairly smeared, Barr said, by suspicions he had collaborated with Russia in the election. "Two years of his administration have been dominated by the allegations that have now been proven false. To listen to some of the rhetoric, you would think that the Mueller report had found the opposite," Barr said.

Barr was critical of Mueller for not reaching a conclusion himself on whether Trump obstructed the probe.

"I think that if he felt that he shouldn't go down the path of making a traditional prosecutorial decision, then he shouldn't have investigated," Barr said.

Barr was asked about the report's finding that Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn in June 2017 to tell Rosenstein that Mueller had conflicts of interest and must be removed. McGahn did not carry out the order. Rosenstein had appointed Mueller the prior month.

Barr, appointed by Trump after the president fired his predecessor, Jeff Sessions, seemed to minimize the incident and said Trump believed "he never outright directed the firing of Mueller." Trump could have presumably appointed someone else to do the job after Mueller was fired, he said.

"We did not think in this case that the government could show corrupt intent," Barr said.

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Source(s): Reuters